Originally appeared Jan. 30, 2002, in the Chicago Free Press.
A RECORD HIGH 58 PERCENT of college freshmen think gay and lesbian couples should have the right to "equal marital status," i.e., civil marriage, according to a survey conducted by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute (HERI).
Confirming the pro-gay sentiment, the survey of more than 281,000 freshmen last fall also found that only 25 percent think there should be "laws prohibiting homosexual relationships," the lowest support for that view since the survey first asked about it in 1976.
Both items show an increase in gay support of about 2 points over the 2000 survey, paralleling a similar 2 point increase in the number of students describing themselves as "liberal."
But since only 30 percent of the students say they are either "liberal" (27 percent) or "far left" (3 percent), that means half of the support for gay civil marriage comes from students who say they are "middle-of-the-road" or even "conservative."
In other words, support for gay civil marriage is becoming the "middle of the road" position, perhaps even picking up some small support among "conservative" students who grasp the social benefits of stabilized relationships.
Although the term "legal marital relationships" seems clear, "laws prohibiting homosexual relationships" is not. When the item was introduced in 1976, it referred to sodomy laws, and many students may still think so. However, some states have recently passed "defense of marriage" laws to bar recognition of gay marriage, so other students may now think it refers to those.
That ambiguity is what led the HERI to add the item specifically about "legal marital status" in 1997. At present, it may be best to view the "homosexual relationships" item as an index of tolerance for gays and the "legal marital status" item as an index of the acceptance of gays as equal citizens.
The survey report ("The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 2001") also provides a useful breakdown by the sex of the respondents and their schools' average SAT scores, religious affiliation, and private or government ownership.
As in previous years, freshman women were far more gay-supportive than men. Nearly two-thirds of the women (65 percent) supported gay civil marriage, but not quite half of the men (49 percent). The 16 percentage point gender difference was one of the largest for responses on any public issue.
The difference is interesting because women generally are more sexually conservative than men. For instance, 55 percent of the men think it is all right for two people to have sex even if they have known each other for only a short time, but only 32 percent of the women think so.
Most of the freshmen at Catholic colleges (61 percent) and nonsectarian private colleges (63 percent) supported gay marriage, but less than half (44 percent) of those at Protestant-affiliated colleges, some of which are associated with more conservative religious sects.
Gratifyingly, intelligence seems to correlate with support for gay civil marriage. Support for gay civil marriage is stronger at more "selective" universities--ones where freshman had higher SAT scores than at less selective universities. For instance:
At public universities with low or medium entrance requirements (as measured by SAT scores), 53 percent of the freshmen supported gay civil marriage. But 66 percent of the freshman at public universities with high entrance requirements supported gay civil marriage - a 13 point difference.
In exactly the same way, 57 percent of the freshmen at private universities with medium entrance requirements supported gay civil marriage, but 72 percent of freshmen at private universities with high entrance requirements did so - a 15 point difference.
Those comparisons point to another factor as well. Students at private universities are more supportive of gay civil marriage (66 percent) than those at "public" (cheaper, taxpayer subsidized) universities (59 percent) - a 7 point difference.
The data do not explain that difference, but it is plausible that parents who can afford to send their children to private schools have themselves been bet ter educated and are able to expose their children a broader range of cultural and educational experiences while they are growing up.
The survey found increased support for other personal rights and liberties as well.
More than one-third (36.5 percent) of the freshmen said marijuana should be decriminalized, an increase from last year's 34 percent, the highest support since 1980.
In addition, 32 percent said the death penalty should be abolished, a 1 percent increase over last year, again the highest support for abolition since 1980. And the percentage of students who think there is too much concern for the rights of people accused of crimes decreased by 2 percent, continuing a recent downward trend.
In the same way, there was less support for "soak-the-rich" tax rates (down 0.5 percent), for further government control of handguns (down 1 percent), for college prohibitions on racist or sexist speech (down 1.4 percent), and in the number of freshmen who think an individual can do little to change society (down 1 percent).
Some of these trends would be called "liberal" and some "conservative," but taken together they suggest a common libertarian trend away from insisting or relying on government controls and a greater desire to make one's own decision and act on one's own initiative.